Great pic…taken just after you emptied the port-a-pot tank on the “w” flight that took “w” home. Remember? With an approval rating in the toilet.

Good heavens. Look at your hair! You look like you’re ready to ‘lay on hands’ and shout “be healed from public education”…”be healed, and I will send you a green prayer cloth to save you from public education………….”

What m@r@ns we have as leaders and blog-pimps.

First of all, students even having an option of taking AP courses at any kind of school aren’t generally the ones who are bringing down our SAT scores and graduation rates. Among that population, we’re talking about students who have a different set of needs….and I asked Sen. Bryant about the availability of private schools willing to serve those needs.

But all that aside, there are lots of public schools that would LOVE to offer more AP classes. In many cases, they simply can’t because of money. Now, there are certainly some schools that could take more initiative and that could shuffle some resources. But in lots of small schools — especially those already serving a high percentage of struggling students — if there isn’t significant “critical mass” for those courses, the public school simply cannot afford it. They may have to have, for example, an AP course in Calculus that has only 3-4 students — just not financially realistic in a lot of situations. I think it’s illogical to blame the school in that situation and say that giving its top students money to go to a private school is going to whip the public school into shape.

Now, there may be a fair debate about whether poor-but-high-achieving students in that public school lacking AP courses deserve entry into a private school offering those courses….and how to make that work, and what that would mean for the health of the public school, etc. But that debate, in my opinion, shouldn’t be a matter of faulting the public school….again, in cases where the costs of AP or other specialized courses just aren’t realistic.

It’s obvious you don’t have any children. The system works for some not others.

The system we have in place now is not working for over 50% of the children that enter the 9th grade, and many of the children that do finish high school in SC are just “pushed” through the system.

I find it “strange” that you would constantly belittle a state Senator who wants to attempt to fix the problems in our education system. Only by the “grace” of God can we hope that more children will be better served by this. If it doesn’t work, the market will kill it.

Debating you is like taking “Candy” from a baby.

Who among you can say the following:

“Public education failed me personally.”

I’m not much of the betting type, but it certainly is a safe bet to say everyone posting to this thread, especially to include the author of the Op Ed, is a product of public education (and is anything but a failure).

We are all engaged adults – aware of what is going on well beyond the confines of American Idol. The issue isn’t the education, it’s the MOTIVATION.

The system works … we are proof positive that it does. Address the other factors – parental involvement – that can’t be address in the classroom.

- SSHM